Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / Montana / Bitterroot Mountains

Blodgett Canyon to Blodgett Lake

Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Bitterroot National Forest (Blodgett Creek Trailhead near Hamilton)

Blodgett Canyon, near Hamilton, is known for granite walls and spires. The Forest Service says its cliffs rise more than 2,000 feet above Blodgett Creek, and Explore the Bitterroot calls it the most popular hiking area near town.

The Forest Service suggests the creek and falls for day hikes, but backpackers can keep going: the Forest Service lists Blodgett Creek Trail #19 at 12.6 miles to Blodgett Lake, with campsites along the way.

The hike

The trail leaves from the southwest corner of the parking area on Road 736.2, near the Forest Service’s Blodgett Campground. TrailsNW describes the drive via Highway 93 and Bowman Road, following signs to the Blodgett Creek Trailhead; Explore the Bitterroot gives Canyon Creek Road as the approach from just north of Hamilton.

The trail follows Blodgett Creek up the canyon floor. TrailsNW describes it passing through an old burn and lush vegetation, with cliffs and spires along the canyon wall. The Forest Service notes a memorial along the trail to Don Mackey, a smokejumper killed in the 1994 Storm King Fire.

TrailsNW puts a waterfall at about the 4.5-mile mark, a common day-hike destination. At about mile 6, a side trail to High Lake climbs more than 2,000 feet in roughly two miles; TrailsNW calls it strenuous and primitive and says High Lake has an old gravel dam and a cabin at its outlet.

Beyond the High Lake junction, the main trail keeps climbing the canyon toward Blodgett Lake, 12.6 miles from the trailhead. Wilderness Watch’s Brett Haverstick, who hiked it in autumn on the way to Blodgett Pass and Big Sand Lake, covered about 11 miles on day one and camped along the creek below the pass. On the way out his party camped a night at Blodgett Lake. His trip is also a weather lesson: a cold front turned warm, mid-70s days into rain and snow, with temperatures dropping 30 to 40 degrees, and the group turned back short of its goal. “It’s not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves,” he wrote.

The Forest Service lists the trail as open to hiking and horseback riding.

For a Bitterroot overnight a little farther north, see Big Creek Lake.

Tips

Camping

The Forest Service says the trail has “numerous creekside campsites.” No permit is needed for general travel in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Its rules: groups of 20 people and 20 stock or fewer; camp at least 200 feet from rivers, streams, and trails where possible; wash water at least 200 feet from lakes and streams; no more than 16 consecutive days in one location. The Bitterroot National Forest food storage order applies on the Montana side from March 1 to December 1. Stevensville Ranger District: 406-777-5461.

Inside Intel: We didn’t find camper accounts that recommend a specific site. Wilderness Watch’s party camped along the creek below Blodgett Pass on the way in and at Blodgett Lake on the way out.

Trail facts

The Lowdown

Granite walls and creekside camps in Blodgett Canyon:

Blodgett's campsites sit along the creek under 2,000-foot cliffs, and fall storms here can turn rain to snow. See the tents testers trust.

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Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.